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Roman Roads | Origin and History

by Mark Cartwright The long straight
roads built by the Romans wherever they conquered have, in many cases,
become just as famous names in history as their greatest emperors and
generals. Building upon more ancient routes and creating a huge number
of new ones, Roman engineers were audacious in their plans to join one
point to another in as straight a line as possible whatever the
difficulties in geography and the costs in manpower. Consequently, roads
used bridges, tunnels, viaducts, and many other architectural and
engineering tricks to create a series of breathtaking but highly
practical monuments which spread from Portugal to Constantinople. The
network of public Roman roads covered over 120,000 km, and it greatly
assisted the free movement of armies, people, and goods across the
empire. Roads were also a very visible indicator of the power of Rome,
and they indirectly helped unify what was a vast melting pot of
cultures, races, and institutions.
Roman Road, Spain

The Roman Road Network

The
Romans did not invent roads, of course, but, as in so many other
fields, they took an idea which went back as far as the Bronze Age and
extended that concept, daring to squeeze from it the fullest possible
potential. The first and most famous great Roman road was the Via Appia
(or Appian Way). Constructed from 312 BCE and covering 196 km (132 Roman
miles), it linked Rome to Capua in as straight a line as possible and
was known to the Romans as the Regina viarum or 'Queen of Roads'.
Much like a modern highway, it did not go through less important towns
along the way, and it largely ignored geographical obstacles. For
example, the impressive 90 km stretch from Rome to Terracina was built
in a single straight line. The road would later be extended all the way
to Brundisium and thus reach 569 km in length (385 Roman miles).
The
network gradually spread across the empire from Britain to Syria and
certain roads became as well-known and well-travelled as those around
Rome itself.
Other famous roads in Italy were the Via Flaminia
which went from Rome to Fanum (Fano), the Via Aemilia from Placentia to
Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), the Via Postumia from Aquileia to Genua
(Genoa), the Via Popillia from Ariminum (Rimini) to Padova in the north
and from Capua to Rheghium (Reggio Calabria) in the south, and many more
besides, all with extensions made over time. The roads became so famous
that they even gave their names to places and regions. The network
gradually spread across the empire from Britain to Syria, and certain
roads became as well-known and well-travelled as those around Rome
itself. For example, the Via Domitia (begun in 116 BCE) went from the
French Alps to the Pyrenees and was invaluable for troop movements in
the campaigns in Spain. There was also the Via Egnatia (begun in the
mid-second century BCE), which crossed the Balkan Peninsula and ended at
Byzantium, making it a vital land route between the western and eastern
parts of the empire.
To achieve the objective of constructing
the shortest routes possible between two points (often not visible one
to the other), all manner of engineering difficulties had to be
overcome. Once extensive surveying was carried out to ensure the
proposed route was actually straight and determine what various
engineering methods were required, marshes had to be drained, forests
cut through, creeks diverted, bedrock channelled, mountainsides cut
into, rivers crossed with bridges, valleys traversed with viaducts, and
tunnels built through mountains. Once all that was done, roads had to be
levelled, reinforced with support walls or terracing and then, of
course, maintained, which they were for over 800 years.
Roman Road Network
Besides
permitting the rapid deployment of troops and, more importantly, the
wheeled vehicles which supplied them with food and equipment, Roman
roads allowed for an increase in trade and cultural exchange. Roads were
also one of the ways Rome could demonstrate its authority. For this
reason many roads began and ended in a triumphal arch, and the imperial
prestige associated with realising the project was demonstrated in the
fact that roads were very often named after the magistrate official who
funded it; hence, for example, the Via Appia takes its name from the
censor Appius Claudius Caecus.

Road Design & Materials

Major
roads were around a standard 4.2 m wide, which was enough space for two
wheeled-vehicles to pass each other. Roads were finished with a gravel
surface sometimes mixed with lime or, for more prestigious sections such
as near towns, with dressed stone blocks of volcanic tuff, cobbles, or
paving stones of basalt (silice) or limestone. First a trench was dug and a foundation (rudus)
was laid using rough gravel, crushed brick, clay materials or even
wooden piles in marshy areas, and set between curb stones. On top of
this a layer of finer gravel was added (nucleus) and the road was then surfaced with blocks or slabs (summum dorsum).
Mountain roads might also have ridges running across the surface to
give people and animals better traction and have ruts cut into the stone
to guide wheeled vehicles.
Roman Road Surface
Roads
were purposely inclined slightly from the centre down to the curb to
allow rainwater to run off along the sides, and for the same purpose
many also had drains and drainage canals. A path of packed gravel for
pedestrians typically ran along each side of the road, varying in width
from 1-3 metres. Separating the path from the road, the curb was made of
regular upright slabs. In addition, every 3-5 metres there was a higher
block set into the curb which stopped wheeled traffic riding onto the
footpath and allowed people to mount their horses or pack animals.
Busier stretches of main roads had areas where traffic could pull over
and some of these had services for travellers and their animals too.
Milestones were also set up at regular intervals and these often
recorded who was responsible for the upkeep of that stretch of the road
and what repairs had been made. Bridges, Viaducts, & Tunnels
Lasting
symbols of the imagination of Roman engineers are the many arched
bridges and viaducts still standing around the empire. From early
bridges such as the Ponte di Mele near Velletri with its single vault
and modest span of 3.6 m to the 700 m long, 10-arch viaduct over the
Carapelle River, these structures helped achieve the engineers'
straight-line goal. The Romans built to last, and the piers of bridges
which crossed rivers, for example, were often built with a more
resistant prow-shape and used massive durable blocks of stone, while the
upper parts were either built of stone blocks strengthened with iron
clamps, used cheaper concrete and brick, or supported a flat wooden
superstructure. Perhaps the most impressive bridge was at Narni. 180 m
long, 8 m wide and as high as 33 m, it had four massive semicircular
arches, one of which, stretching 32.1 m, ranks as one of the longest
block-arch spans in the ancient world. Two of the best surviving bridges
are the Milvian bridge in Rome (109 BCE) and the bridge over the river
Tagus at Alcantara (106 BCE) on the Spanish-Portuguese border.
Roman Bridge, Pont-Saint-Martin
Tunnels
were another essential feature of the road network if lengthy detours
were to be avoided. The most important include three tunnels built in
the 1st century BCE: Cumaea, which stretched 1,000 m in length, Cripta
Neapolitano measuring 705 m, and Grotta di Seiano 780 m long. Tunnels
were often built by excavating from both ends (counter-excavation), a
feat which obviously required precise geometry. To make sure both ends
met, shafts were sometimes drilled down from above to check the progress
of the work, and shafts could also be used to speed up excavation and
work at the rock from two angles. Nevertheless, when working through
solid rock, progress was tediously slow, perhaps as little as 30 cm a
day, resulting in tunnel projects lasting years.

Conclusion

Roman
roads were, then, the arteries of the empire. They connected
communities, cities, and provinces, and without them the Romans could
surely not have conquered and held onto the vast territories they did
over so many centuries. Further, such was the engineering and surveying
skills of the Romans that many of their roads have provided the basis
for hundreds of today's routes across Europe and the Middle East. Many
roads in Italy still use the original Roman name for certain stretches,
and even some bridges, such as at Tre Ponti in modern Fàiti, still carry
road traffic today.
Submitted
by Mark Cartwright, published on 17 September 2014 under the following
license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This
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